'Be grateful you weren't locked in bathroom': BJP tells Tharoor after he flags 'serious irregularities' in Congress presidential polls

BJP's remarks came after the campaign team of Shashi Tharoor, who conceded defeat to Mallikarjun Kharge in the Congress presidential election, flagged "extremely serious irregularities" in the conduct of the election.

New Delhi: Hours after Congress presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor flagged the issue of "polling irregularities" in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a swipe at him on Wednesday (October 19, 2022), saying he should be grateful he wasn't "locked up in a bathroom". BJP IT department head Amit Malviya also claimed that the Thiruvananthapuram MP will be "ridiculed" and "shamed" for taking on the Gandhis.

"Shashi Tharoor is whining like a sore loser. Did he actually expect elections in Congress to be free and fair? He should be grateful that he wasn't locked up in bathroom," Malviya said in a tweet.

"The worst is still to come. In the next few months he will be ridiculed and shamed for taking on the Gandhis," he added.

Shashi Tharoor is whining like a sore loser. Did he actually expect elections in Congress to be free and fair? He should be grateful that he wasn’t locked up in bathroom…The worst is still to come. In the next few months he will be ridiculed and shamed for taking on the Gandhis. — Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 19, 2022

His remarks came after the campaign team of Shashi Tharoor, who on Wednesday conceded defeat to Mallikarjun Kharge in the Congress presidential election, had reportedly written to the party's chief election authority, flagging "extremely serious irregularities" in the conduct of the election in Uttar Pradesh.

Besides demanding that all votes from Uttar Pradesh be deemed invalid, Tharoor's campaign team had also raised "serious issues" in the conduct of the election in Punjab and Telangana, various media agencies reported.

In his letter to Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, Tharoor's chief election agent Salman Soz said that the facts are "damning" and the election process in Uttar Pradesh is "devoid of credibility and integrity".

He said after a detailed discussion with polling agents, Tharoor's team is constrained to report "disturbing facts".

Soz conveyed to Mistry that what has been witnessed in Uttar Pradesh is an open challenge to the authority of "your office" as well as contempt for the orders of the Congress president and the Congress Working Committee to hold free and fair elections.

"We would like to underline that we have no evidence that Kharge Ji was aware of how his supporters were engaging in electoral malpractice in Uttar Pradesh. We are certain that if he was aware, he would never allow what happened in Uttar Pradesh," Soz reportedly wrote in his letter.

"He (Kharge) would not allow the tainting of an election that is so important for the Indian National Congress," Soz was quoted as saying in the letter.

Shashi Tharoor team's letter flagging 'serious irregularities' in Congress polls should not have been leaked to press: Madhusudan Mistry

Responding to complaints by Shashi Tharoor's team related to polling in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana, Madhusudan Mistry said he will respond to letter point by point.

He said the letter should not have been leaked to the press and Tharoor's team should have directly engaged with the poll authority.

Mistry also said there was no basis for the contents in the letter and there was nothing specific in the complaint.

Mallikarjun Kharge defeats Shashi Tharoor, elected new Congress president

Meanwhile, Mallikarjun Kharge was on Wednesday elected the Congress president after defeating Shashi Tharoor in an electoral contest, the sixth in the party's 137-year-old history. Mistry announced that of the 9,385 votes polled in the Congress president poll, Kharge received 7,897 votes, while Tharoor could only manage 1,072, while 416 votes were declared invalid.

Kharge is the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years.

(With agency inputs)